Commander Bad Habits You Need to Quit | The Command Zone 507 | Magic: The Gathering Commander EDH

My group always goes "I'm sorry" before doing a game changing play and always someone goes "no your not" they respond "I know" and we laugh about it other good ones is "in response I will cry"

Playing at Sorcery Speed, Not apologizing for playing the game - A story related to those things. Once I played a game of Commander where I was in the lead, and I knew that if I survive the next rotation I would win. One of the opponents was playing Korvold. He had nothing on his board, and played Korvold. I had a removal for him, but since he had nothing else I let it live. Then the player proceed to put some other cards on the table, dark ritual, and went off, pumping the Korvold to 27 power, and then he wanted to equip boots to Korvold to give him haste. I had no flying blockers. At that point I played my removal. The opponent basically table flipped, that I should have removed his Korvold as soon as it was played, that I shouldn't have wasted everyone's time by letting him pump Korvold, and that I'm breaking the game for everyone. At that point I wanted to keep up my removal for a bigger threat, as 2 more players would still play, and they had good board states. I only had limited number of answers, and I knew I would need them. And once he played all the pieces needed to loop Korvold there was no good place to play removal, as he potentially could have had protection. The moment he went to equip boots he actually dropped shield and tapped out all his mana, making it a perfect point to attack. I didn't feel bad about it, I didn't apologize when he god mad about it, and when he started to call me a tryhard. I just told him my reasoning, and agreed that I probably made a mistake by not killing Korvold on sight(as you should ALWAYS do), but it's not like I could take it back at that point. It was 2 years ago, or so, and to this day he won't play in a pod with me. I still stand by my opinion that keeping up the removal is just standard proper magic, and not "tryharding at commander".

Episode starts at 3:23.

CZ: "Don't apologise for playing the game." Me, a Canadian: "I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean."

I'm a big fan of saying out loud, "Untap, upkeep, draw" at the beginning of turn to help remember. Although a lot of times it sounds like "Unta-pkee-dra" like Kyle Hill does.

I have to admit my worst habit is missing my own triggers. People are usually quite helpful when it happens and it really only disadvantages me so it's probably not the worst one to have but that is still the one I want to resolve to be better at in 2023.

Bad Habit / pet peeve: having conversations that drown out what people are playing. Too many times I've been in a game where the other players are engulfed in a conversation and not paying attention to what's being played. If you're not paying attention to what I am doing, I will clearly say what I am playing and if your conversation is more important, then I'll assume that my stuff resolves. Don't be upset that you didn't bother to interact with my massacre wurm / natural affinity combo.

The attack Craig on the checklist was a nice touch lmao

I have a friend that once played the Phage + Fractured Identity combo and when he won, he kept apologizing to the rest of the table (he seemed sincerely embarazed). I told him he doesn't have to apologize for a combo that he INTENTIONALLY put in his deck. If he feels like apologizing to everyone for doing those kind of plays, then he just shouldn't put those cards in his decks to begin with.

The worst habit of opponents I play against regularly is playing a single player game. They never tell the table what they're doing and just expect people to know what their cards do and when their turn is over.

When my friend was teaching me how to play, he made a simple rule to make me remember how a turn starts. If I forget to untap before I draw, that means "I've elected to skip my untap step". A simple punish, but it really makes you learn fast.

Listen, I get that some folks just dread seeing ads and stuff when we're watching videos like this, but I want to say I appreciate that you run therapy ads like that and show it in the positive light it deserves. Men do not see that often enough, nor do they take it to heart unfortunately. Ultimately, guys, go see a therapist. Worst case scenario they say you're fine and have nothing to learn from them (unlikely, we all need therapy at some point) but best case you find out how to maneuver your own emotions and issues. Anyway, thanks for running ads for therapy.

My Commander Bad Habit: Watching CZ and always ending up buying more cards afterwards.

Just another comment reaffirming Rachel should be on the podcast nearly all the time.

Another big phase-move thing I find frustrating at times is when people go right from main 1 to "swing in for 3", without declaring the move to combat phase. Very relevant in some decks to respond in combat but before attackers are declared, and it's frustrating to have to say "can you tell me when you're moving to combat cause I might have a response"

I've gotten in the habit of when the turn is passed to me, I verbalize each phase as I do them "Untap, upkeep, draw". I guest stream fairly frequently and it just makes the show stream smoother if you declare your actions and steps.

I love infinitokens as a salt mitigator. When I would usually get a bit salty, I find that enjoying myself by creating goofy tokens takes my mind off of it

I just got infinitokens and they added so much fun to my play group! We love making silly drawings and flexing our artistry skills. We also found it super handy for resolving Wheel of Misfortune because everyone had a place to write their chosen number!

With regards to token representation, I find having a standardized 'language' or protocol for how to treat token tracking helps immensely. In my case, dice placement matters- top left of the card is number, middle is counters, bottom right is P/T, and have all freeform tokens follow that method.

I am surprised no one mention the biggest bad habit everyone makes. STOP TELLING PEOPLE HOW TO PLAY.Let them make mistakes because only then they will learn from them. Also a bonus bad habit. STOP BACK SEAT GAMING, SPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE NOT IN THE GAME OR DEFEATED. I hate when people approach the table and point things out to others or how they should play their hand or even more annoying when they grab the top of your deck to see future turns. Seriously people stop.